


poofed

by Galaxxi



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: (i mean someone gets poofed so. yeah lol), Canon-Typical Violence, Diamond Moms, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Homeworld (Steven Universe), Platonic Relationships, Post-Steven Universe: The Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-11-28 21:22:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20973260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galaxxi/pseuds/Galaxxi
Summary: Steven and Spinel decide to have some fun on Homeworld. It's great! Until it's not.





	1. It's Only The Second Time

**Author's Note:**

> (don't you just love when you've got everything typed out and then you accidentally back outta the page and lose everything because AO3 doesn't automatically save stuff??? yeah,,, me too)  
ANYWAY, HIYA! I don't have much experience writing (or even reading) SU fanfic, but I love Spinel and have adopted her as my own daughter and I've got ideas for her that are too long for me to put into comics AND I want to polish my writing skills anyway. Sooo, this could be the first of several SU fanfics from me! It might also be the *only* one as I'm still a total perfectionist with my writing and as a result,,, I hate posting things xD I wanted to write a fic about what might happen if Spinel poofed, and I figured if she was going to poof it was probably going to be from doing something stupid. I also wanted to write a multi-chapter fic for once, so I broke this into two parts. Hope y'all like it~ c:

Despite all the time Steven had spent on Homeworld in the last few years, most of it he had spent with the Diamonds. For better or worse, he was rarely far from them - earlier being accused of crimes he inherited from his mother that later would be revealed to have  _ never even occurred,  _ then later returning to them again not as a galactic war criminal but instead as a fellow diamond in an attempt to sway them to his side. It succeeded, of course, and ever since he had been dismantling and reconstructing the entirety of gem society and trying to reform the diamonds themselves. (It had been going well!) Practically everybody in the galaxy knew the abridged version of this story. The only time he’d had on the planet away from them was hard to enjoy since at the time he was fighting off their murderous robonoids deep in the abandoned kindergartens far below modern gem society while simultaneously attempting to stage an escape back to Earth.  


This was basically his first time  _ peacefully  _ enjoying Homeworld. About as much could be said about the other half of his party - Spinel was as unfamiliar with the planet as he was, possibly even more so given how much had changed in her 6,000 year absence.  


“So you hardly ever saw Homeworld, even way back when?”  


“Nah, I've only been here a couple of times, and it was  _ always  _ at  _ Her  _ side. Otherwise…” She paused to look up at a spire that towered over them, the side of which was iridescent and shimmered in the light. Her gloved hand trailed along its smooth surface and her eyes followed the structure down, farther and farther past the reflections of the stars and its surroundings until she met the eyes of her own broken reflection.  


_ No _ , she thought, shaking her head,  _ not broken, just… healing. _ She  _ was _ healing, but something twisted behind her gem every time she caught sight of herself. The feeling wasn’t as bad as it  _ had  _ been, but…  


Instantly she ripped her gaze away, instead letting it rest at the ground between her and Steven. “I’ve spent practically all my life up until recently in the garden. I hardly got to experience Homeworld, even back  _ then…” _

“...”

“... Guess it’s for the better, since I’d end up missing out on so much. Can’t miss what you didn’t know, right? Heheh…”  


They briefly walked in silence, making their way across a golden bridge that sat over a black expanse. Distantly between the shadows of the tall structures and buildings sat White Diamond’s ship, the once intimidating icon merely a white silhouette on the violet sky. Their pace slowed as they enjoyed the view, and Spinel came to a stop in the middle of the bridge.  


“...Hey, since we got nothin’ else to do, there’s somethin’ I kinda wanted to try…” She said coyly as Steven stopped just ahead and turned to face her, “If you’re  _ alright  _ with it, I mean-”

“Yeah? What is it?”

Her hands, held together in front of her, gripped each other tighter. “... Can I see your shield?”

He raised an eyebrow.

“Uhh… sure thing.” Steven replied. With his left arm raised in a defensive position, his shield appeared in a quick flash of light. She studied its translucent pink surface briefly before reaching a hand out to grasp the edge. Stopping halfway, she nervously looked up, checking his features for a disapproving expression. When he tilted his head with a reassuring smile she confidently let her hand guide itself the rest of the way, finally wrapping her fingers around the light blue edge of the shield. Her hand glided a short distance along its rim before it secured its position, and then she let herself grab the opposite side with her other hand. Steven took this as his cue to release his magical hold on the weapon, and she was then able to freely hold it for herself. She examined it again, viewing it from multiple angles, testing its weight and swinging it through the air with one hand.

“So?” He asked. She was miraculously spinning the entire shield on a single finger as if it were nothing.

“So what?” She offered back.

“What are you thinking?”

The shield stopped spinning, and she rolled it across her shoulders before grabbing it and holding it in two hands. She smirked.

“I had a dumb idea after watching you throw this thing around.” She looked to her right, then her left, and her eyes widened in attention.

“Stay right here!” She cheerfully yelled as she took off. Confusion continued to rattle his mind, but he trusted her, so he kept his shield summoned and left her to run back to the side of the bridge they’d just come from. She skidded to a stop and turned, looking down to the shield. Steven laughed.  


“What are you doing?” He yelled back. Her head shot up, and with a toothy grin…

“Catch!” She replied, whipping the weapon towards him. As it cut through the air it clicked in his head what this was.  


A game!

He took a few steps back, and the few steps turned into a run, following the path with his head turned over his shoulder to keep up with the trajectory of their makeshift frisbee. He hardly stopped as he launched himself into the air and caught it, its momentum carrying him through a spin before his sandals delicately reached the ground. Across the distance he could hear Spinel giggling from the other side, and it was his turn to grin. He’d thrown his shield in battle before to defend others, to cause a distraction, even to throw enemies off their balance - but he’d never thought to use it as a  _ toy.  _ He could almost hear Pearl reprimanding him for using it so carelessly, much like she used to when he was young.  


But as he looked across the golden tiles that stretched and connected the two paths over the darkness below to see Spinel cheering and bouncing, eagerly awaiting his return throw with squeaking steps, he couldn’t care less about what the imaginary Pearl in his head might think.  


So he dashed forward and with a swing of his arm, the shield was gliding through the air once more. Its surface glistened and gleamed pink as it reflected the light. With all the practice he’d had, his aim was incredibly precise - it  _ had _ to be, after all. She watched it much like he had, ran sideways, and jumped - extending her arm to catch it in one hand. The limb snapped back to its normal length as she landed, and she didn’t miss a beat as she spun around and threw it back to him. Their little game continued on for a while, back and forth, back and forth, laughing and joking and only losing the shield once or twice to the dark void below. Unlike a normal frisbee, this wasn’t a problem. Steven could summon and re-summon them as many times as needed, stray shots weren’t a concern.  


Well, not when they only fell into the darkness, they weren’t.  


It was Spinel’s turn to throw, and she was determined to throw it farther and harder than she had before.  _ Oooh, it’s going to be  _ great  _ watching Steven try to catch this one!  _ She thought as she literally wound herself up, wrapping and twisting her body around itself to create tension. She let go, and she rapidly unwound, spinning faster and faster before releasing her grip and sending the shield  _ flying... _

…  _ Right  _ into the side of the building on the other side of the bridge.  


_ Right  _ into the building over  _ Steven. _

Oh no.

Already her boots were striking the tile of the bridge at a hard, impressive pace as she raced across it. They both watched the shield hit the structure and disintegrate in the resulting crater somewhere behind the dust cloud.

“Uh oh…” Steven muttered.

“Steven!” She cried. “Are you oka-”

She was cut off as the sound of crumbling rock rumbled through the eerie silence. Small pieces of rubble struck the ground and then with widening eyes she looked up before Steven could - just in time to see the much  _ larger  _ pieces of debris hurtling down on them all too quickly.  


She definitely threw that thing way,  _ way  _ too hard.  


Without thinking, she threw herself at him. She had to get him out of the way, she had to stop him from getting hurt again,  _ she wasn’t going to let him get hurt again  _ especially  _ not because of her-  
_

It all happened so fast, he hardly had time to defend himself. Bracing himself, he raised his arm and another shield sparkled into being. To his surprise the force didn’t come raining down from above, it came as a blow to his  _ side _ , and when he opened his eyes all he could see was Spinel as she shoved him out of the way - pigtails flailing behind her, limbs extending to cover the distance, worried tears filling wide eyes, wrinkling her nose and grimacing in both fear and determination to get her friend out of harm's way…

And then he saw the particularly long, jagged piece of rock that came down and  _ pierced _ her body with a sharp, almost  _ electric  _ sound. She didn’t even react as it cut through her somewhere under her gemstone and planted itself firmly into the ground beneath her, pinning her in place like a thumb tack.

Somewhere between the push and the collision with the ground his shield dissipated. He hit the ground, rolled, and slid at least another ten feet from the force. He came to rest curled up on his side, and when he looked up he saw the dust clearing around the debris. He saw her only for a second, but it was long enough to see her shaking, eyes still wide and twitching, tears cascading down her cheeks and arms still outstretched to him with trembling fingers. The rubble that protruded from her body was nuzzled way too close to the crook of her upside-down heart-shaped gem to the point he worried it might have made contact. Just as quickly as the dust had cleared there was another explosion, this time smaller, sparkling, and bright pink in color -  


And it was punctuated by the lonely sound of a gem clattering to the ground. 


	2. Spinel 3.0

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spinel reforms and there's Wholesome Diamond Mom Content For All(tm). They've never had someone they actually cared about poof before, so they're a little... frantic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> beep beep here's the second and Final part. pop the confetti, i wrote something with two chapters, woohoooo time to aim for Three now xD that is a joke of course i could never write that much for one story lmfao  
if you'd like to slightly spoil yourself and VISUALLY see what my take on a Reformed Homeworld Spinel might look like, you can check out some of my art for it here: https://66.media.tumblr.com/33614456d085ce5edcbbb05050e1dd8a/tumblr_pyvxtmUwT11tbxzylo2_640.png warning: She Is Babey.  
ok please enjoy!!

Steven coughed as the last of the dust settled. Standing, wobbling, then breaking into a staggered run he was at her side in an instant, kneeling down to see the little gem that rested among rocks and rubble. The last time he saw her like this she had been trying to kill him. Now she was here because she’d tried to save his life.

Funny how that works sometimes.

Gently he picked her up and cradled her gem in his hands. He turned it over, and relief washed over him when he saw not so much as a scrape. Then his attention moved to watch the light gleam off and reflect through the gemstone, creating slivers of magenta-tinted rainbows against his own scraped up hands. It was pretty, but… he couldn’t stop thinking about how close she was to getting _ broken _ .

He sighed.

Bleary eyes wandered over to the jagged rock that poofed her. It was so close to hitting her gem, if she had just been a little slower… it might have gone straight through it. He could fix cracked gems (not that it made it any less scary), but broken ones were a different story. There would be no fixing it, no more Spinel, and for what? He was more than capable of defending himself. He’d survived things far, _ far _ worse than falling rubble. _ He wasn’t in any real danger.  
_

_ “Why… did you _ do _ that?” _He muttered. The silence didn’t answer. He sat for another moment before giving one more heavy sigh, standing, and removing his jacket.

How was he going to explain _ this _ to the diamonds?

* * *

The trio all gasped as they saw Spinel’s gem nestled in Steven’s folded up pink jacket, half tucked under one sleeve.

“What happened!? Are you okay?” Blue gasped.

“Were you attacked!?” Yellow questioned. It wasn't an unreasonable assumption, while most gems were more than happy to transition to this new age of Homeworld, there were a handful that most definitely _weren't, _and it wouldn't be the first time one of them had tried to pick a fight with whoever they thought responsible.

White followed them in shocked silence as they all crowded around him. They huddled together on the floor, all trying to get a better look at her.

“No no, it wasn’t anything like that - we were playing a game, and things got a little… chaotic.”

“Game?” White asked.

“We were... throwing my shield around and catching it.” He admitted. “It was innocent enough until we missed one of the shots. It flew into the side of a building, the debris almost hit me but Spinel jumped in and got me out of the way. Then it hit _ her _ instead, so she… poofed.” He gave a half-hearted shrug and held up the wrapped gem to emphasize his point.

“What happened to your powers? Your shield, your bubble?” Yellow diamond sounded more and more frantic by the second.

“That’s the thing, I had my shield ready, but she still tried to protect me. I don’t know… _ why… _”

The push. Her eyes. His confusion, then shock, and the sharp rocky point. The memory flashed in his mind again as he trailed off. Why didn’t he do anything? Why _couldn’t _he do anything? Maybe, if he had been a little faster, a little more aware… he could have stopped her from poofing at all. He sat on the floor, cradling the wrapped up gem in his arms and holding it close while the diamonds panicked above.

“What are we going to do?” Blue shot looks to the others.

“I don’t know, who _ knows _ how long she’ll be out!” Yellow panicked.

“Oh, _ stars - _ what if she comes back… _ different? _ That can happen, can’t it?”

“Has she ever done this before?” White interjected. Steven thought for a moment. _ Once, twice…  
_

“She’s not usually out for more than a few hours, or at least I think so. So it… could be a little while, still.”

The diamonds all looked to each other. Blue blinked back tears.

“Look, she'll... be back eventually, right? Maybe we should just leave her in her room, and-”

Steven kept his eyes on the gem as she went on. He was in the middle of tucking it tighter under the sleeve so he was the first to notice when it began to glow. His resulting gasp silenced Blue mid-sentence and lead them all to inch closer as it rose from the fabric, its glow intensifying the higher it floated above him. Suddenly there was an explosion of light from the gem and it took a humanoid shape - first of her original form, round and small, trademark heart-shaped silhouettes sprouting from her head - then it flickered and became sharper, taller. Her gem flipped and her shoulders and shoes became pointed, her pigtails unraveled, jagged and loose.

Then, it flicked for a third time, borrowing shapes from both previous forms before finally solidifying into her new form. The light suddenly released and revealed her new look, her pigtails recurled into hearts similar to her original form although now inverted and pointed at the ends. The dark lines under her eyes were gone, the lashes in their place pointing downwards, and her eyes retained their bright pink color. Her sleeves were much poofier, her top was white, and she sported a short, ruffled skirt that was dark pink in color over puffy pink pants that ended in laced cuffs. Her white stockings now only went to her knee and disappeared into huge pink boots, which were still pointed at the toe. Interestingly, her gem remained upside-down. She finally landed on her feet on a panic, looking around frantically.

“Steven - !” Her worried look instantly became one of relief and before she could move he had rushed at her for a hug.

“You’re okay!” He cried. She returned his hug. “Why did you do that?? I would have been okay, you didn’t have to get involved-”

“I- I don’t know, I guess I just… acted on impulse? I didn’t know what else to do, I just wanted to keep you safe!” She let him go. “... How bad was it?”

“You… almost got cracked, or even shattered…”

Something else twisted behind her gem now. Something she hadn't felt in a while. It burned in her chest and forced her to take a few small shuffling steps back. She couldn't meet his gaze as she started nervously wringing her hands.

“I-”

** “** ** _Shattered??_ ** **”** The Diamonds all gasped. Steven shrunk a bit and stepped back. In all the excitement he’d instantly forgotten how dramatic they could be, and how until that point he’d tried not to let slip how the object of their affections was almost lost… _ again. _ Now it was Spinel’s turn to look up and see them, and she too recoiled when she saw the obvious worry and distress on their faces.

“She... It was really close to her gem, almost touching it actually-”

“_ WHAT??? _ ”

Blue grabbed Spinel and held her close as she started crying. White looked like she was going to faint.

“Do you have any idea how _ dangerous _ that was? _ Putting your gem on the line when Steven’s more than capable of handling himself?? _ ” Yellow scolded.

“You could have been _ shattered! _ ” White wailed. Spinel folded further into herself, the feeling she now regretfully identified as _guilt _intensifying and burning her face as the realization of what she'd done and what she'd _almost _done sank in.

“But you _ weren’t _ ," Blue said sternly through sobs, giving them both another pointed look," and we’re _ so _ _glad_ you’re okay,” she reassured. The other diamonds expressions softened, and they joined her in a group hug around the little gem. “We’re also… _ proud _of you for what you tried to do, even if it wasn't entirely... necessary.”

Finally something clicked in her head, and her attention shifted from her guilt. If she'd caused them this much grief...

“You guys were… worried? About me?”

Blue held her out in front of her, lovingly toying with a pigtail with one finger.

“Of course we were, we really care about you!”

There was nothing but love and relief on the diamond’s face as she said it. Looking around and seeing Yellow and White leaning over her shoulders, giving her similar doting expressions… She was overcome with a new emotion that washed away most of her guilt and anxiety and flushed her cheeks dark pink. She just wanted to _ melt. _ Instead she shook off tears and took them all in a large embrace, wrapping her arms around them a few times with a squeeze. Meanwhile, Steven sat on the palace floor, watching the wholesome exchange with his head tilted to the side and a smile on his face.

They’d all come so far, and they had a ways to go still - but he was still deeply proud of their new little family. He jumped up, and joined their embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!! <3 kinda short silly and sweet but that's just how i saw it lol. ive got more SU fic ideas, one of which is kinda a sequel to this one?? hopefully i can write at least one more of them,,,,,  
remember to kudos and comment if its not too much trouble, it encourages me to write more!! ; o ;

**Author's Note:**

> ... re: title - It's fine, this is *only the second time* a seemingly-innocent game has ended very badly for this poor noodle.  
Remember to leave kudos and even a comment if you like!! They encourage me to keep writing <3 Next chapter coming in the next few days!!


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